Many might want to forget 2017 ever happened; at Quartz, Angus Harvey compiled a list of 99 things that might help salvage the image of the year that just ended.

In a widely shared article, Grist writer and meteorologist Eric Holthaus warns about the rapid collapse of Antarctic glaciers and the devastating floods that could ensue.

“Gazing back from our coughing, hacking, smoke-filled present, the preservationist impulse can seem ironic. The landscapes Americans most wanted to save are instead changing rapidly—in some cases more so than adjacent, unprotected areas—and preservation itself is to blame. “

“Wendy is more Mad Max than the nerd with a fondness for fossils I’d expected. A living legend, known the world over for her sixth sense. A celebrated dinosaur hunter. And a real badass.” Photographer Susan Portnoy explores the Canadian Badlands of southern Alberta with Wendy Sloboda.

Time zones: why do we have them? Science blogger Jon Farrow explains: “The answers to these questions, like so much that is great in this world, involve two of my favourite things: Canada and astronomy.”

Welcome to your guided tour of the Greater Sage Grouse’s lek, where male birds gather and show themselves off, hoping to be selected by a female. Brendan McGarry takes us inside a spectacle that’s at once ridiculous and utterly serious.

Astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days circling Earth. Read an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, Endurance: A Year In Space, A Lifetime of Discovery.

A thorough, well-reasoned, and data-supported response to American Christians who deny the reality of climate change, from theologian and scholar W. Bradford Littlejohn.

Do animals fart? Why, yes, yes they do, but you might be surprised to learn that some do not! The blog of National Geographic Education compiles teaching ideas and resources around flatulence in the animal kingdom.

Jill Sisson Quinn’s essay, “Big Night” — on the process of adopting a child and her fascination with salamanders — was recently selected for the “Best American Essays 2016” anthology.

“Inmates live together in cottages, not cells; in every cottage lives a huset far, or ‘house father’ who is in charge of loading the wood into the home’s furnace.” Writer Jennifer Bowen Hicks describes Bastøy, an environmentally aware prison in Norway.

Science, animal testing, and ethical research: cancer researcher Courtney Thomas works with mice in her lab — and thanks them each for their service.

Whether you’re going back to school or graduated years ago, you’ll enjoy this stick-figure-filled conversation with Math with Bad Drawings blogger and UK-based math teacher Ben Orlin.

Data storage can be compromised when the physical drives and disks degrade, but what if we could store our increasing quantity of computerized data the way we store human data — in DNA?